Traditional aircraft cockpit doors which separate the flight deck from a cabin of the aircraft often operate on hinges that allow the door to swing open and swing closed. The full travel of the hinged swinging door occupies much space within a limited space of the inside of an aircraft in permitting ingress and egress of authorized personnel with respect to the flight deck.
A sliding pocket door can be employed, instead of the hinged swinging door, which demands much less use of space with opening and closing of the sliding door within the limited space within the aircraft. However, aircraft doors are required to account for potential decompression events. A sliding pocket door only moves laterally along their tracks and does not respond to move to an open position in response to a decompression event which applies a force on the door in a direction transverse to the direction of travel of a sliding door and the tracks upon which the sliding door travels.
There is a need to provide a door for an opening that in operation permits authorized personnel to travel through the opening, for example, between the flight deck and the cabin such that opening and closing of the door does not take up much of the limited space available within the aircraft. At the same time, there is a need for the door to be able to respond to a decompression event and provide an open air passageway through the opening or passageway which the door secures. In addition, there is a need to have a locking mechanism which permits securement of the door and release of the door from a closed position to provide authorized personnel to travel through the passageway and to provide the door to be released to an open position responsive to a decompression event to provide an air passageway.